Death Penalty News

Angered by a wave of early-morning executions of protesters and political prisoners, some Iranian social media users have directed their anger at Islam and the morning call to prayer, prompting an IRGC-linked campaign demanding their prosecution. As executions have accelerated in recent weeks, some Iranian social media users have increasingly portrayed the pre-dawn adhan as a reminder of hangings rather than the beginning of the day’s religious observances. The adhan is the Islamic call summoning Muslims to the five daily prayers.

SAHIWAL: Two men were awarded a death sentence on Thursday for making a blasphemous post on Facebook in 2024. Along with the death penalty, AntiTerrorism Court Special Judge Ziaullah Khan also awarded the convicts seven-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.5 million each. According to the police, both men were booked in the FIR under the PPC Section 295-C, sections 7 and 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (1996), and sections 10 and 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016). 

Rules capital charges leveled against the disabled Catholic man were fabricated A Pakistani court has acquitted a blind Catholic man of blasphemy charges, ruling that the case against him was fabricated. The Additional Session Judge Court in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, cleared Nadeem Masih, 51, on June 22 and ordered his immediate release from detention. Judge Saad Salman Khan delivered the verdict in a case that carried the death penalty under Pakistan’s Penal Code.

The EU has tightened the rules governing GSP+ trade preferences, but Pakistan’s record raises a harder question: whether Brussels is prepared to suspend market access when a major beneficiary fails to demonstrate sustained compliance with human rights, labour and governance obligations. The European Union has formally adopted revised rules for its Generalised Scheme of Preferences, strengthening the conditions attached to preferential market access for developing countries. The new framework will apply from 1 January 2027 and is intended to tighten monitoring, widen the list of international conventions, and make suspension of benefits easier in cases of serious violations.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the world’s most egregious tools of religious repression. They enable abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities (including Christians) for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties.  Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, for instance, is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. 

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are facing renewed criticism as a Christian charged in a high-profile case awaits a verdict that could carry the death penalty. The case against Ishtiaq Saleem underscores growing concerns about false blasphemy accusations by organized networks and the risks to religious minorities, according to ADF International, a Christian legal advocacy group supporting the accused’s defense through allied lawyers in Pakistan. “Blasphemy laws create a culture of violence and discrimination and must be repealed,” said Tehmina Arora, director of advocacy for Asia at ADF International, in a press statement. “Ishtiaq must be freed, and Pakistan must move toward a culture that respects and protects religious freedom for all.”

Christian sanitation worker falsely accused under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and imprisoned for over 3 years could receive the death penalty ISLAMABAD (10 March 2026) – A Pakistani Christian father accused under the country’s draconian blasphemy laws is awaiting a potential death penalty verdict in a case that raises serious concerns about religious freedom and the exploitation of blasphemy accusations by organized networks.  The trial proceedings concerning Pakistani Christian Ishtiaq Saleem have reached a critical stage, with the court completing hearings relating to false blasphemy-charges against Saleem, while proceedings continue for his co-accused. 

Lahore, Feb 9 (PTI) A high court in Pakistan has set aside the death sentence of a former military officer in a blasphemy case and acquitted him for "want of evidence," a court official said on Monday.  A sessions court had awarded a death sentence to Col (R) Muhammad Arif last year for allegedly passing insulting remarks about the Prophet in Rawalpindi city, some 250kms from Lahore.  An activist of radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which was recently proscribed by the Shehbaz Sharif government, was complainant in this case. 

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia on Friday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Zafar Bhatti, a Christian pastor in Pakistan who spent 13 years in prison on a false blasphemy conviction, died of cardiac arrest just three days after his acquittal. He had returned home after being cleared by a high court, but collapsed before his family could make arrangements for medical care. Bhatti, 62, founder of the Jesus World Mission Church, was arrested in July 2012 in Rawalpindi, Punjab province, after a local cleric accused him of sending text messages that insulted the mother of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was charged under Article 295(C) of Pakistan’s Penal Code, a provision that carries the death penalty for defiling the name of the Muslim prophet.

A woman was burned alive this weekend by a Muslim mob for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's holiest figure, in Niger State, central Nigeria, police said Monday.  The woman was burned alive on Saturday in a mob attack after making remarks deemed blasphemous against the Prophet in the Kasuwan-Garba community in Mariga district, Niger State Police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 6, 2025: Esmail Hajivand and Farzad Yari, two men on death row for murder, were executed Malayer Prison. According to HRANA News Agency, a man was hanged in Malayer Prison on 28 July 2025. His identity has been reported as 44-year-old Esmail Hajivand who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. Another was executed at the prison on 5 August. His identity has been reported as Farzad Yari who was also on death row for murder.

Pakistan’s Senate has passed legislation removing the death penalty for two specific crimes in what officials openly acknowledge is a calculated move to preserve billions in European trade benefits — while leaving untouched the blasphemy laws that have sent dozens of Christians to death row.  The Criminal Laws Amendment Bill, which awaits National Assembly approval and presidential sign-off, eliminates capital punishment for publicly stripping women and harboring hijackers. Pakistani officials did not attempt to disguise their motivation: the changes were explicitly designed to satisfy European Union requirements under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) trade scheme, which demands that death sentences be “limited to the most serious crimes only.”

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday acquitted Anwar Kenneth, a 72-year-old Christian man who spent more than two decades on death row under a blasphemy conviction, citing mental illness as a key factor in its ruling. Kenneth, a former government employee, was arrested in 2001 after allegedly writing letters deemed blasphemous toward the majority religion. In 2002, he was sentenced to death under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code and fined five million rupees. Despite concerns over his mental health and reports of a coerced guilty plea, the Lahore High Court upheld the conviction in 2014.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 17, 2025: Asghar Jahangir, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman announced today that the blasphemy death conviction of Amirhossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, has been upheld by the Supreme Court and sent for enforcement. The singer’s defence lawyer, Majid Naghshi, previously reported filing a judicial review request. Reiterating its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, Iran Human Rights considers the use of this inhumane punishment for charges such as blasphemy to be a flagrant violation of international human rights law and calls on civil society and the international community not remain silent about Amirhossein Maghsoudlou’s death penalty.

Hadi Matar, the man who severely injured novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 stabbing attack, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison — the maximum for attempted murder. Matar, 27, was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder in February for his attack on the author at the nonprofit Chautauqua Institution in New York state in August 2022. A knife-wielding Matar leapt onto the stage where Rushdie was about to give a lecture, stabbing the author multiple times in the face, neck, arm, abdomen and eye.

The court, however, acquitted two other suspects -- Daud William and Shahid Aftab -- for want of evidence against them. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has awarded a death sentence to a Christian man for committing blasphemy and implicating two fellow Christians in a false (blasphemy) case that caused an anti-Christian riot in a city of Punjab province in 2023, a court official said on Saturday. He also awarded him 10 year jail, with a total PKR 3 million fine under section 295-A of the PPC.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Federal agents in Pakistan arrested a young Christian man under a blasphemy law mandating the death penalty for comments posted in Facebook chat groups under his name by unknown persons, his family said.  Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials took 24-year-old Arsalan Gill of Railway Quarters in Mughalpura, Lahore, into custody on March 17 as he returned home from his work as a sweeper, said his brother, Suleman Gill.

LAHORE: A sessions court has awarded the death penalty to a man for committing blasphemy on Thursday. Shahdara police had registered the FIR in 2020 under section 295 A & C of the PPC on the complaint of Niaz Ahmad Noori, a prayer leader and local emir of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The complainant alleged that the accused uttered disrespectful remarks against the Holy Prophet. The former wife of the convict also testified in the trial proceedings and presented an audio recording of the blasphemous remarks allegedly uttered by him.

A Pakistani court Saturday sentenced four people to death for blasphemy, allegedly because they posted sacrilegious material on social media about Islamic religious figures and the Quran. Their lawyer said appeal preparations are underway. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or its religious figures can be sentenced to death. Authorities have yet to carry out such a penalty, although the accusation of blasphemy and opposition to the law can incite mob violence or reprisals.